The broadnosed pipefish or deepnosed pipefish (''Syngnathus typhle'') is a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

of the family Syngnathidae (seahorses and pipefishes). It is native to the Eastern

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

ocean from Vardø in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

(north to the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

) and the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

in the north all the way to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

at south. It is also found in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

and

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

. It is common in the coastal shallow waters, usually on reefs with seagrasses. This species is notable for its "broad" snout, which is as deep as its body.

Description

The broadnosed pipefish is a slender, elongated fish with a hexagonal cross-section which distinguishes it from its even more threadlike relation the straightnose pipefish (''Nerophis ophidion''), which has a circular cross-section. The body surface is covered by small bony plates. The head resembles that of a seahorse with a long, laterally flattened snout and obliquely sloping mouth. Unlike the straightnose pipefish, it has a fan-shaped caudal fin. The general colour is greenish, often with various darker mottling, and the belly is yellow. The average size is about with a maximum of .

Distribution

The broadnosed pipefish is native to the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Its range extends from Vardø, Norway to Morocco. It is found at depths to about .

Biology

The broadnosed pipefish tends to rest in a vertical position among the fronds of

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

and feeds on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

such as

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

s which it sucks in through its mouth. This species of pipefish has a sex-role reversed

mating system A mating system is a way in which a group is structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The precise meaning depends upon the context. With respect to animals, the term describes which males and females mating, mate under which circumstances. Reco ...

in which females compete for access to males. This fish breeds in the summer. The male has a brood pouch into which several females deposit clutches of about twenty eggs and where the eggs are fertilised. The fry hatch after about four weeks and are expelled into the open water. Even after this the male continues to provide some parental care as the fry can retreat into the brood pouch in case of danger.

Reproduction

Courtship and copulation

Males and females both actively court one another for mating, but courting is more frequent in females. Courtship and copulation follow a stereotyped pattern, beginning when one fish identifies a prospective mate nearby and performs the ritualized dance. If the other is receptive, the two align and continue the dance together until the female delivers her eggs into the male's brood pouch via an

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

. The male then shakes the eggs into his brood pouch, releases his sperm into the pouch and assumes an S-shaped posture to fertilize the eggs.

Mating system

These pipefish have a polygynandrous mating system, with both males and females mating with multiple partners during a breeding season. Like other species of pipefish, the broadnosed pipefish is sex-role reversed: males brood the eggs and because of their increased investment in offspring are the choosier sex, whereas females compete more intensely than males for access to mates. Females can produce eggs faster than males can brood them, and are limited by the size of the male's brood pouch, which cannot carry all the eggs of a female similar to himself in size. Male brood time is approximately four to six weeks, during which time the male provides oxygen and nutrients to the developing embryos until they hatch. One to six females contribute to each brood clutch, which is the highest rate of multiple maternity in all of the pipefish species.

Mate choice

Although males are choosier than females, both sexes exhibit a preference for large mates due to a positive correlation between size and

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the capability to produc ...

. Large females produce more and larger eggs and transfer more eggs per mating, while large males have increased brood clutch size and embryo weight. Males also exhibit an avoidance of females carrying high parasite loads, which is negatively correlated with fecundity. The pipefish are not always able to mate with their preferred mates. For example, when predators are present, males are less choosy and mate indiscriminately with small and large females. However, both sexes can compensate for mating with non-preferred mates. For example, females deposit more proteinaceous eggs when mating with a lower quality male. This increases offspring viability since the smaller males are less able to nurture the embryos himself. Males, on the other hand, can selectively absorb the eggs of lower-quality females after copulation. By doing so, the male gains nutrients by ingesting the nutritious egg, which he can then allocate to caring for the embryos he sires with preferred, higher quality females in the future.

References

External links

* Kuiter, Rudie H. 2000. Seahorses, pipefishes, and the relatives. Chorleywood, UK: TMC Publishing. 240 p. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1130760 broadnosed pipefish Fish of Europe Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the Baltic Sea Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the North Sea Fish of the Sea of Azov broadnosed pipefish broadnosed pipefish